Calif. police reject 3% raise, demand double

SAN JOSE — San Jose's police union Wednesday announced the officers have emphatically rejected a 3-percent raise offer and demanded the city double it to end the ongoing pay feud they blame for thinning the department's ranks.

"Our members know their worth," John Robb, vice president of the San Jose Police Officers' Association, said in a Wednesday letter to city negotiators, "and will not accept a proposal that will not slow or stop the exodus of San Jose police officers leaving to work for other agencies."

City negotiators had complained that the officers' association had doomed the vote on the city's one-year, 3-percent raise offer by urging rejection, wasting time on a membership vote without tendering a counter-offer. Just two officers voted for the 3-percent raise, and 954 were against.